


Latin, Roman History and Chaos

by loni_meow



Series: Jedtavius [1]
Category: Night at the Museum (Movies)
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, Latin, M/M, learning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-08 05:42:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15924053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loni_meow/pseuds/loni_meow
Summary: Jedediah was bored, and after some history lessons with Octavius, he decided to ask if the Roman could teach him Latin.





	1. Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you read this Two Show on Tumblr before, it's because I'm the same person, and I'm posting it here and on Tumblr! :)

Jedediah was bored, and he waited for his companion while sitting on the ground, playing around with the gun in his hand.

It was probably better that the gun wasn't real, so that Jedediah couldn't do too much shit with it.

He just used it to play around with something when he was bored, and he was bored right in that moment.

Nothing special was happening, it was more like all those exhibits came to life to fall asleep.

Jedediah frowned and leaned against the wall that was behind him.

Where was Octavius, and what took him so damn long?

He started wipping with his feet while he was impatient, but still waiting, since he wasn't intending to annoy Octavius.

Suddenly, Jedediah saw a shadow on the ground in front of him, and he looked up.

"Where have you been?" he immediately asked the Roman, who was now standing in front of him.

"I'm sorry," he answered and sat down next to Jed, "There was a fight amongst ourselves, and I needed to fix that."

"A fight?" Jedediah snorted, "why don't you just let 'em fight?"

Octavius shook his head slowly. "This may work with your people, but not with mine," he insisted, "Did you ever hear about the sentence "we shouldn't fight a war amongst ourselves"? I think not, but-"

"Yeah, I didn't know that," Jedediah interrupted, "Fights belong to our lives, Octy."

"I reigned over them, I should know what I have to do with them," Octavius then said, ignoring the nickname.

"You remember your actual life?" Jed asked excited.

"Some things, yes. And I remember Latin."

"That's sick, you never really told me before!", the Cowboy said loudly and placed a hand on Octavius' shoulder. "Would you mind telling me?"

The amount of seriousness in Jed's eyes made the Roman wonder.

Why shouldn't he, though? Jed was a really good friend, and his stories weren't that sad. Except for his death, of course.

And he remembered his death very well.  
Octavius shook for a moment, but he brought it under control.

"It's not really interesting for you, I think. But if you actually want to, I would tell you the things that I know," he then told his waiting friend, who looked concerned for a moment, but the concern vanished after that answer.

Octavius' concern was created in exact that moment.

He remembered what kind of person he was, and how much it brought him down. It made him feel uncomfortable, unworthy, and mean.

He looked at Jed, who was waiting, more patient than Octavius was used to.

"You don't look like you're sure," he meant, and the Roman sighed. He wasn't that Octavius anymore, and that was something he actually had to keep in mind. But still, it didn't honor him what kind of person he was.

And if he told Jed, what would he think then? 

Still, Octavius opened his mouth and said something that showed the opposite of the thing his body, glare and voice said.

"I am sure."

Jed took his hand back and nodded, still not completely persuaded.

"Well, I know that Caesar was killed when I was eighteen, and because he had adopted me in-"

"Wait, what? You guys had _adoption_ back then?" Jedediah said surprised, but Octavius only nodded.

"Uh, yes, sure," the Roman meant, only to continue then, after a few moments of silence.

"And because he declared me as his rightful successor, I was reigning the Romans, then. It was... weird and exhausting to begin with, but the actual Octavius did never worry about it. Never. He did his thing, and he did it good. That's what I know," Octavius ended, lowering his head as he noticed how clear he had divided himself from the actual Octavius with his words.

Jedediah shook his head.  
"Listen, pal. You don't have to tell me when you're uncomfortable with it. It's your death, isn't it?"

Octavius looked up again and stared into his friend's eyes.

"No, not this time... I think it's how... I .. gained the power that I had. First, I had been fighting against a man for some months before we and a third man created a reign together. We fought against the Rebublicans, and we won. But later, when I wanted the full power, I fought against them, too. And as you can think, I won.  
I tricked the people into believing that my power only existed because of them, but behind their backs, I held my power with my soldiers. And I needed to guide the people back together since there was a war between the people who were for Caesar and the ones who were against him, and even if that was over, they were divided. I couldn't reign over a chaos, so I've tried to get them all for me, and succeeded. They gave me the name Augustus, and I was the first Roman imperator. I didn't do the mistakes my adoptive father did, but my reign only worked because of the game I was playing with the people. And because I got them together, while Caesar divided them into two halfs. That's why I think that we shouldn't fight a war amongst ourselves."

When he finished, he looked away from Jedediah again. "I hate to know that I was a mischievous liar," he admitted and waited for Jed to say something, but there wasn't anything.

"The only thing I'm still good at is Latin," Octavius tried again, and he pressed his back more to the wall again. It was silent, and with every moment, his hopes, that Jedediah wouldn't mind the way he was before, sunk.

"Oct?" Jed asked suddenly, and the Roman didn't look up, but nodded.

"Would you teach me?"

After that question, he frowned and looked up again, confused. "What, how to be a mischievous liar?" he joked, but Jed still shook his head, and his friend understood.

"Are you sure? No one actually speaks Latin anymore."  
"You do," the Cowboy said as if it was a good argument. "And your soldiers, too."

Octavius laughed a little bit and shrugged.

"Why do you want to learn it exactly?"

Jed grinned slightly. "I'm bored and I want to confuse everyone, except you. I want to talk in Latin to you, it'd be fun since you would always have to correct me. Also, you're uncomfortable with your life before this, but not with Latin, that's how it seems. I'd like to ask you 'bout your reign since I didn't understand some of it. But that can wait."

Now, Octavius smiled again, thankful and cheered up, again.

"You are right. But Latin is an exhausting language, I warn you."

"It can't be that exhausting."

||||||||||||||

Oh yes, it could.

Jed looked at Octavius, who looked back, waiting. The cowboy could perfectly see the little smirk on the Roman's face.

"I warned you," he said and Jedediah rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I didn't think that you meant it, though."

"I did," Octavius said, almost giggling, but keeping that down, at least.

The words that the Roman gave him didn't even make sense, but he was right, he got warned before.

But did he take that serious?

Of course not.

And he still wondered about the fact that the Romans hat those funny, useful writing tablets.

Jedediah looked up. "I don't have a clue."  
Octavius leaned forward, but wasn't satisfied with that position, so he stood up and sat down next to Jed, getting pretty close.

The cowboy looked at his friend, and he frowned.  
"How could you even speak this? I need ages to learn it and I ain't able to put those words together."

Now, the other miniature looked up, raising an eyebrow.  
"I would have said the same about English, back then," he told Jedediah before he put a finger to the writing tablet.

"Look, you know those words."  
"Yeah," Jed said, "But your grammar is fucked up."

The way Octavius looked up again, staring right into his eyes, made Jed nervous.  
"Hey, calm down, pal," he said, avoiding his friend's eyes, looking down at those words.  
"Hm?" Octavius asked and obviously didn't know what had happened.

"Your glare was weird," Jed told him. "Forget it, though. Could you explain?"

It was a chaos of explaining, but to Jedediah's surprise, the Roman was good at the explanations. It was still weird, and there was a weird case that only Latin had, and in general, what was wrong with Latin's grammar?

||||||||||||||

Jedediah snorted at Octavius who sat right next to him, like always. They got used to the other being so close, they actually liked it pretty much.

But Jed felt like he could burst because of pure frustration.

He had thought about quitting this language for a longer time, but he wanted to make Octavius proud, even if he couldn't say why that was so important to him.

Maybe it was the way Octavius looked at him when he got something right, even if it were little things, he seemed proud, and Jed liked that.

"Damn it," he growled, looking at the sentence, but when he felt like he got it, he looked up to the other miniature.

"Wait, wait, wait, Oct."

The Roman looked at his friend and raised an eyebrow. "What is it? Do you know the translation?"

On the writing tablet stood the sentence " _T_ _e semper adiuvabo."_ and when Jed could translate all the words, he felt a warmth inside of him.

"Do you mean that serious?" he asked the Roman, and he saw how his eyes widened. He didn't expect Jedediah to success in translating this.

He became a little bit red on his cheeks, but he still nodded.

"I will always support you," Jed read out loud, causing Octavius to blush even more.  
Why did he do that, again?

"I-I just w-wanted you t-to know," he stuttered, and Jedediah let it be with a little "mmh".

Sometimes when they just didn't learn, relaxed or did something stupid, Jed started to ask him about his reign.

Often, Octavius answered with silence, but sometimes, he started to talk, actually smiling.

Especially when it was about the people that he needed to know so good. But there were some things that he didn't even want to think about.

||||||||||

"I hate and I love. How can I do that, you might ask me? I don't know. But I feel that it happens and I'm tortured."

"Perfect," Octavius said with a little nod, wipping with his feet, enjoying the sound, while he had a proud, wide smile on his face.

"What?" Jed asked, and he couldn't believe it. Finally, Octavius said that to him. "You did that translation perfect," the Roman said again.

"I can't believe it," Jedediah said with a little laugh. "But it's fun."

His friend looked at him with surprise. This wasn't what he had been expecting from the other miniature, but he heard it.

"Is this a poem?" Jed asked suddenly, pointing at the sentences Octavius gave him.

Since they where learning for a long time now, the Roman already gave him more than one sentence.

"Yes, it's from Catullus."

Jedediah laughed, leaning back, putting the writing tablet to the ground.

"Catullus, huh? You Romans and your weird names. Is there an actual system or somethin'?"

Octavius smirked even more, and Jedediah already regretted his question. "Sure, there is something really important," the general said and couldn't hold back a mischievous giggle. "The endings of the names were important. First, there are always exceptions in Latin. But those rules I tell you are the usual things: Masculine names end with 'us', and feminine names with 'a'."

It took Jedediah way too long to realize what Octy was telling him and why he had this weird grin in his face.

When the realisation hit in, his eyes widened and he opened his mouth immediately to defend himself.

"My name ends with 'h', pal," he meant, raising an eyebrow. He tried to stay calm, but the way Octavius couldn't even hold back his laughing anymore made him nervous.

"But it sounds like an 'a' at the end. So you're feminine. I didn't know about that, yet," the Roman said, playing the innocent, putting an arm around the embarrassed cowboy.

"I guess you're my girl instead of my boy now."

Hell, after he had said that, both blushed deep red.

Octavius took his arm back, looking away.

"I-I, uh, you know..." he stuttered quietly and ashamed. Usually, the Roman wouldn't mind, but he was a bit afraid of Jedediah's reaction since he wasn't a Roman and he wasn't sure about his opinion about this.

When he looked at Jedediah, he couldn't read anything out of his blue eyes, so he gulped. He only saw the blush on the other's cheek.  
But those beautiful, blue eyes...

"I am sorry, Jedediah," Octavius said, still a bit ashamed, but not even hiding it anymore. "I pushed the boundaries, I think," he continued, concerned, but Jed rose his voice again.

"It's fine," he said, so calm, that it almost scared Octavius, "But don't you ever call me a woman or a girl when we're close to our men, alright?"

"Alright."  
  
_They came out of that situation, but next time?_


	2. Part 2

The more time went, the more Jedediah fell in love with Latin - and with Octavius (even if he didn't want to admit it, he really liked him and well... sometimes when he was daydreaming, he dreamed of things that he wouldn't admit, too).

It became obvious, and Octavius himself was even more obvious.

He often gave him poems about love, and this time, Jed had giggled and watched Octavius, while he actually was supposed to translate it.

He was good at Latin, and he was proud of it.

Octavius' eyes were closed, and he breathed peacefully.

Jedediah didn't think that the Roman was sleeping, he was only waiting.

The cowboy grinned, putting a hand on the Roman's knee. He was sitting there with his legs pulled to his body, but Jedediah soon pressed the legs down.

He didn't realize that Octavius watched him all the time, slightly smiling at Jed's behaviour.

He expected that the cowboy would put the writing tablet down on his lap to leave afterwards, but when he saw how Jed put that tablet next to them, he began wondering.

That the Roman was lying there was perfect for many chances to kid him, especially the way Jedediah planned it.

He couldn't say that he wasn't excited, though.

Could that plan still go off as a joke?

But Jedediah didn't want to think about that, if he did, he may would destroy his great plan.

Octavius opened his eyes completely and raised an eyebrow.  
"What are you doing?" he asked, what made Jedediah laugh this time.

"I'm your girl, you said. I have my duties," the cowboy answered, not able to hold back his laughing while he sat down on Octavius' stomach, snapping against the Roman's helmet to pretend that this was just fun.

His own stomach twisted and his heart began to race a bit, but he smiled that away without any problems (at least he hoped that).

 _Come on,_ he told himself, _just remember the sentences, get them done, and your revenge is done._ Jedediah gulped, clearing his throat afterwards.

The way the Roman looked at him made him nervous too. It was confusion, and something else, something awkward.

 _Now start this or you'll never do and that'd make this moment more weird than it is,_ the cowboy said himself, leaning forward to his friend's face a bit.

"To show that in love's wound," he started with a quiet but surprisingly controlled voice, staring right into Octavius eyes, playing his role.

"So deep and terrible," he continued, giving a quick glance to the sentences, "A sweetness may be found, that makes life bearable."

Those were the sentences he had to translate, and he did it, but the way he did, was weird for Octavius.

He tried to stay cool, but obviously failed, causing Jedediah to grin amused and swallow down a sigh of relief.

He felt like he was short before blushing himself, being so close to Octavius, or better, _sitting_ on him.

And playing this role, being so close and saying those sentences from a love poem really wasn't that easy.

"That's right," the Roman still brought out and shivered at his own, thin and tense voice.

Jedediah didn't understand what he did to him, but it was (even more) surprisingly comfortable, so he stayed, watching the nervous and slightly blushing Roman (feeling good with that, because he was relieved that he wasn't the only one that was flustered here), until there seemed to be a different reaction of him.

His glare turned cold and he put his hands at Jedediah's arms, while his breath tickled Jedediahs face, what was the only sign of that what had happened.

The cowboy had leaned in more and more, and he was so close, that they almost kissed.

" _A me abi_ ," Octavius growled, sounding so fierce that it scared the cowboy. Another thing that scared him was the fact that Octavius spoke Latin, telling him to get away from him.

Jedediah sat up straight again, being afraid of that "full-Latin-mode", how he himself called it.

"Oct, you know that I'm just joking!" he tried to say, but his friend just pushed him off to quickly stand up afterwards.

He was still gentle for the anger, or whatever that was, in his eyes.

Octavius was ready to go, but he turned around to Jedediah, who was sitting on the ground then.

"You will never do that again."

It was only a quiet hiss, but it actually scared Jedediah even more.

Still, he couldn't shut his mouth yet.

"Why are you so angry?" he asked quickly before Octavius could go away. Again, the Roman turned around and eyed his friend.

"Nevermind."

||||||||||||

It didn't even make sense!  
Octavius could take some things too serious sometimes, but this?

Jed even said that it was a joke, and usually, even if he got it wrong before, Octavius calmed down at that point. He most likely had to listen to Jedediah's complaining because of "a joke ain't fun if you tell 'em that it's a joke".

He maybe would've said that to Octavius to make away the mess that he caused with that action, even if that tension that was between them sticked with Jedediah since exact that day.

He'd been giving Octavius time, since he seemed to be not okay with his actions, but he didn't see him anywhere, and even if he accidentally walked pass the Roman diorama, he didn't even hear him.

He usually was giving his people some commands before he left, but even that wasn't there anymore.

To be honest, Jedediah missed (and worried about) him, especially since even Larry, who could perfectly look into the diorama, didn't see him for a few days.

So, Jed decided that he had to do something.

Octavius actually hid in a little house that was in the diorama.

They really tried, he thought, but he remembered his home different.

Well, this wasn't even his house, it actually belonged to... well, no one, he just liked to hide in there.

No one would think that Octavius was in there, they wouldn't even think that this house was real.

At least Jedediah didn't knew it, only a few of the Roman's men.

He couldn't look at Jedediah after that thing he did for revenge, or his mind would play him imagines that would be rather... _distracting._

He thought of the things he could've done with that cowboy if he let him, if it was real, and if Jedediah would've been there right now, he even could see Octavius blushing when those thoughts came up again.

He didn't want them - it had only been revenge for Jedediah, and he needed to accept that.

And that wall in front of him was way more interesting than Jed.

_Sure._

Octavius snorted at himself.

He sat with the back to the door, and stared at that wall for a while now.

He even stayed here when the sun rose, and he didn't think of the fact that Jedediah could ask his soldiers if he got into this diorama.

He completely forgot about it, yeah.

He didn't actually hope that his friend would come, no, _of course not._ How could he?

And why couldn't he just admit it to himself instead of lying?

That would make things easier, at least when Jedediah wasn't around.

What Octavius didn't know was the fact, that Jedediah already stood in front of his door, unsure if he should knock or not.

The Romans had been nice to him and guided him the way to this house without any struggles. They may looked at him confused and a bit amused because a cowboy in a Roman diorama looked pretty funny, he had to admit that.

Jedediah himself shook his head, and then just opened the door before it was too late.

His thoughts almost had taken him into the moment of going away, but not this time.

He closed the door again, and Octavius sighed amused, what made Jedediah consider that the Roman expected someone else.

He could only see Octavius' back, and so the other one had to turn around to see who was there.

"I swear," the general said, suddenly pretty serious, "if you came here to tell me that Marcus broke his horse-drawn carriage again, you can return to him and tell him that this thing isn't broken, that he's just too stupid to use it correctly."

Octavius sounded so serious, and Jed wanted to say something, being confused because of the mean words, but the Roman himself was faster. He broke the seriousness with a little chuckle. "No, forget that, that would be mean."

Jedediah just had to smile at that, and he shook his head.

"It would," he said into the silence, making Octavius to obviously gasp shocked.

Now the cowboy chuckled a bit, and watched how the Roman stood up confused and surprised.

"Why are you here?" he immediately asked, and Jed wasn't really paying attention since this was the first time he saw Octavius without any armor, and also, it was one of the few times he saw his friend without his helmet.

Well, the sound of the Roman clearing his throat brought him into reality again, getting his glare away from Octavius' clothes.

"Well, you ain't show yourself, so... I came here. Since you went full-Latin-mode on me the last time we were together, I thought that we had to clear some things up."

Octavius just blushed slightly, and even if they were standing away from each other a bit, Jedediah could see it pretty well.

He also saw the Roman whispering some words, and from the pronunciation, he could see that it had to be Latin.

"Uh," Octavius made as a weird, little noise. "I don't think that I know what you mean."

Jedediah sighed and came closer, seeing that the Roman raised an eyebrow.

"That what I've done some days ago," he explained, even if he was sure that his friend only played that he didn't know what was meant.

But they had to make this clear, and Jedediah's opinion on that action was clear.

"Octavius," he said, actually surprised to hear himself saying his normal name, completely serious, "I didn't do that to... to mock you, alright? Listen, I'm not good at this, but... oh, crap... It was to mock you because you mocked me before, but you're just comfortable, okay? And when I leaned in, it was because... I wanted to. I like you really much and... uh...", Jedediah confessed unsure, coming closer to Octavius, who couldn't help but blush and smile during those words, trying to respond afterwards.

"Hey, Jed-"

"I'm not done yet. You know, when you started teaching me Latin, I was pretty mean about that language. I'll take that back. I'm glad that I learned it, and especially, that you teached me," Jedediah interrupted, looking down at the floor embarrassed, while Octavius' smile became even bigger as he could feel a warm feeling inside of him, going a step forward and then taking the cowboy's hand.

" _Te amo,"_ the Roman said quietly, placing his hands on Jed's shoulders.

Jedediah looked up surprised, but happy and also blushy, and when he heard Octavius saying that, his heart made a big jump, and he returned a smile.

 _"Etiam te amo,"_ Jedediah answered, and Latin still sounded difficult from his mouth, but Octavius didn't care.

He just pulled the cowboy close to kiss him immediately, so that he couldn't see the tears of joy in Octavius' eyes.

The kiss was everything they wanted in that moment, and both of them pulled the other as close as possible, not planning on letting each other go again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a me abi! = get away from me!
> 
> te amo = I love you
> 
> etiam te amo = I love you too
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this Two Shot!


End file.
